Latest news with #GardinerExpressway
CBC
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
Set 500 years in the future, this outdoor performance turns Toronto into an apocalyptic desert
The centrepiece of The Bentway's new summer production is a pile of sand. An enormous heap that's sitting under the Gardiner Expressway. The show is Sand Flight, an original work of contemporary dance created by choreographer Ingri Midgard Fiksdal and theatre director Jonas Corell Petersen, and it takes audiences 500 years into the future — when the Toronto we know has been swept away by wandering dunes. The production will have its world premiere Thursday at The Bentway, less than a week after another monumental, climate-conscious performance debuted in the city. Thaw, an eight-hour aerial spectacle in Sankofa Square, was presented by Luminato Festival last weekend, and it featured performers grappling with a melting iceberg on a moving crane. In Sand Flight, eight dancers will take to a manufactured sand dune, where they'll be joined by 50 singers from Viva Voices, a local all-ages choir. It's a compelling sci-fi premise, but Sand Flight doesn't tell a "straight up story," Fiksdal explains. "We are circling around the theme of shade and sun and how cities might change in the future when — or if — global warming continues," she says. But according to the choreographer, the piece has a hopeful point of view despite its existentially dreadful subject matter. To survive, humanity must unite, and in the hour-long performance, the dancers gradually adapt to their strange and unstable environment, becoming stronger when they collaborate and rely on each other. Performances will be happening at The Bentway June 12 to 15, and the piece is expected to tour internationally after its Toronto run. (Dates in Copenhagen and Oslo are already scheduled.) We are circling around the theme of shade and sun and how cities might change in the future when — or if — global warming continues. Both Fiksdal and Petersen live in Norway, but the piece was directly inspired by a trip to Toronto — and The Bentway site, specifically. Located under the elevated portion of the Gardiner Expressway, The Bentway technically stretches from Dufferin Street in the west to the Don Valley Parkway in the east, and the artists were struck by the unusual grandeur of the space. "It's so far from human scale in a way. It's so extremely large," says Fiksdal. "We were thinking, 'How can we work with human performers in this context and still make an impact somehow, [so] it just doesn't become this teeny tiny thing that you look at from afar?'" The solution was sand. Lots and lots of sand. They could build something enormous with it — and sand, they realized, was rich in symbolic meaning. "Underneath the Gardiner Expressway, this used to be the shoreline, the old shoreline of Toronto. So it has been a sandy ground in the past," says Fiksdal. "Cities are built on sand in a way, or this kind of material. And then cities also disappear and reappear as new cities," adds Petersen. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust … sand to sand. As Fiksdal sees it, everything under the sun will eventually become sand somehow. And with sand, they could create the illusion of a desert. What if the setting was a city forever transformed by climate disaster? It was a concept that hewed to the curatorial theme of The Bentway's summer program, Sun/Shade. The outdoor art exhibition opened last month, and it features a variety of original works including a mixed-media installation by Sobey Art Award finalist Tania Willard. "As our cities are getting hotter, there's a need for shade," says Alex Rand, The Bentway's manager of programming and lead producer on Sand Flight. Shade is something the venue has always provided in spades. It is, after all, sheltered below a 6.5 km stretch of freeway. "While we were developing a work with [Fiksdal and Petersen], we invited them to respond to this idea of shade and rising temperatures," says Rand. "The sand is meant to represent the desert-ification of our cities," he says — and last Monday, sand began arriving at The Bentway by the truckload. There's 700 tonnes at The Bentway right now. (After the show's run, all of that sand will be returned to suppliers.) "The priority was to get [the dancers] on the sand as quickly as possible," says Rand, and the ensemble — which includes several members of Toronto Dance Theatre — has been rehearsing daily at The Bentway in the lead up to Thursday's opening. "They are navigating the sand dune in different ways," says Fiksdal, describing the dancers' movements in the show. "On one level, they're working with the sand — how to traverse the sand or how to be with the sand," she says. "And then they're also in negotiation, because the sand obviously affects how they can move." To create the choreography, Fiksdal rehearsed on actual sand dunes, and spent time at the Råbjerg Mile, a migrating coastal dune in Denmark. There, she experienced harsh winds and blowing sand. But she also discovered the creative potential of such an unpredictable environment. Sand is soft. "It offers a lot of possibilities in terms of tumbling down or operating differently with gravity," she says. Sand Flight will be staged at Strachan Gate, under the concrete arches of the Gardiner. During performances, the cyclists and dog-walkers who frequent the area are in for a surprise. Rand hopes the outdoor spectacle motivates them to buy a ticket to the show. (Same-day rush passes will be available, he says.) "Seeing the performance, you will get this kind of frame from the highway with a lush background of the green trees and parks and then the sand dunes," says Petersen. "If you turn your head, you will see the skyline of Toronto. So it's really a unique possibility to create a piece that is something in itself, but also takes in the city and relates to Toronto as well."
CTV News
2 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
24/7 Gardiner construction has resulted in travel times doubling: study
Major construction project on the Gardiner is being blamed for doubling travel times. A new study says travel times on Toronto's Gardiner Expressway have doubled in just one year due to ongoing construction. The study from Altitude by Geotab—a software company that provides mobility data analytics—says that the most congested sections of the Gardiner experienced an increased delay of about 230 per cent in 2025, while commute times along the entire expressway—from Highway 427 to Cherry Street—have doubled since construction began in 2024. The delays along some portions of the Gardiner are even worse. For example, the study found that it is now taking drivers 24 minutes to travel from Humber River to Strachan Avenue during peak commuting hours, which is triple the eight minute average from before construction began. The drive from Jarvis to Dufferin streets has also nearly tripled, going from an average of 11 minutes during peak commuting hours prior to the beginning of construction to 30 minutes as of last month. In April, the highway was reduced to two lanes in each direction between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue for critical rehabilitation work. Ontario has said the construction work on the highway is ahead of schedule and set to finish more than 15 months earlier than planned. Altitude by Geotab says their study looked at vehicles travelling on the Gardiner eastbound during the peak morning hour—7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.—and westbound in the afternoon—4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.—as well as eastbound and westbound travel times during the middle of the day—11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. It found that the first three weeks of the new construction that started in mid-April this year caused travel times to increase, 'resulting in an average morning peak travel time of 40 minutes from the pre-construction 23-minute commute.' Delays were found to be at their worst along the segment of the Gardiner that spans from Colborne Lodge Drive to just past Jameson Avenue. Gardiner study The map above shows increased eastbound travel times on the Gardiner Expressway towards downtown Toronto during the 7:30-8:30 a.m. rush hour, comparing pre-construction with conditions after new construction began in 2025. 'The data clearly shows the significant strain of the Gardiner Expressway construction on daily commutes and business in the Greater Toronto Area,' said Mike Branch, Vice President of Data and Analytics at Geotab, in a release on Monday. 'The traffic patterns in large cities like Toronto impact the entire region. When you add a large sporting event, concert, or other community event, you have a picture of where the bottlenecks will be. With the roadwork expected to continue next year, drivers should plan for significant delays along their commutes.' The study said that when construction first began, those first three weeks also had the slowest travel times, but the numbers came down after drivers settled into the new routine, so if that pattern holds, commute times could lower by about five minutes in the coming weeks. And it's not just the Gardiner being impacted by the 24/7 construction. Altitude by Geotab says Lake Shore Boulevard has seen a 'persistent' 30 per cent average increase in travel time over the last 14 months. According to the province, construction is slated to be complete by January 2026. With files from CTV News Toronto's Alex Arsenych
CTV News
2 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
24/7 Gardiner construction has resulted in travel times doubling: study
Westbound traffic is seen on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. A new study says travel times on Toronto's Gardiner Expressway have doubled in just one year due to ongoing construction. The study from Altitude by Geotab—a software company that provides mobility data analytics—says that the most congested sections of the Gardiner experienced an increased delay of about 230 per cent in 2025, while commute times along the entire expressway—from Highway 427 to Cherry Street—have doubled since construction began in 2024. The delays along some portions of the Gardiner are even worse. For example, the study found that it is now taking drivers 24 minutes to travel from Humber River to Strachan Avenue during peak commuting hours, which is triple the eight minute average from before construction began. The drive from Jarvis to Dufferin streets has also nearly tripled, going from an average of 11 minutes during peak commuting hours prior to the beginning of construction to 30 minutes as of last month. In April, the highway was reduced to two lanes in each direction between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue for critical rehabilitation work. Ontario has said the construction work on the highway is ahead of schedule and set to finish more than 15 months earlier than planned. Altitude by Geotab says their study looked at vehicles travelling on the Gardiner eastbound during the peak morning hour—7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.—and westbound in the afternoon—4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.—as well as eastbound and westbound travel times during the middle of the day—11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. It found that the first three weeks of the new construction that started in mid-April this year caused travel times to increase, 'resulting in an average morning peak travel time of 40 minutes from the pre-construction 23-minute commute.' Delays were found to be at their worst along the segment of the Gardiner that spans from Colborne Lodge Drive to just past Jameson Avenue. Gardiner study The map above shows increased eastbound travel times on the Gardiner Expressway towards downtown Toronto during the 7:30-8:30 a.m. rush hour, comparing pre-construction with conditions after new construction began in 2025. 'The data clearly shows the significant strain of the Gardiner Expressway construction on daily commutes and business in the Greater Toronto Area,' said Mike Branch, Vice President of Data and Analytics at Geotab, in a release on Monday. 'The traffic patterns in large cities like Toronto impact the entire region. When you add a large sporting event, concert, or other community event, you have a picture of where the bottlenecks will be. With the roadwork expected to continue next year, drivers should plan for significant delays along their commutes.' The study said that when construction first began, those first three weeks also had the slowest travel times, but the numbers came down after drivers settled into the new routine, so if that pattern holds, commute times could lower by about five minutes in the coming weeks. And it's not just the Gardiner being impacted by the 24/7 construction. Altitude by Geotab says Lake Shore Boulevard has seen a 'persistent' 30 per cent average increase in travel time over the last 14 months. According to the province, construction is slated to be complete by January 2026. With files from CTV News Toronto's Alex Arsenych
CTV News
2 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
Traffic times along the Gardiner have doubled in one year due to construction: study
Westbound traffic is seen on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. A new study says travel times on Toronto's Gardiner Expressway have doubled in just one year due to ongoing construction. The study from Altitude by Geotab—a software company that provides mobility data analytics—says that the most congested sections of the Gardiner experienced an increased delay of about 230 per cent in 2025, while commute times along the entire expressway—from Highway 427 to Cherry Street—have doubled since construction began in 2024. The delays along some portions of the Gardiner are even worse. For example, the study found that it is now taking drivers 24 minutes to travel from Humber River to Strachan Avenue during peak commuting hours, which is triple the eight minute average from before construction began. The drive from Jarvis to Dufferin streets has also nearly tripled, going from an average of 11 minutes during peak commuting hours prior to the beginning of construction to 30 minutes as of last month. In April, the highway was reduced to two lanes in each direction between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue for critical rehabilitation work. Ontario has said the construction work on the highway is ahead of schedule and set to finish more than 15 months earlier than planned. Altitude by Geotab says their study looked at vehicles travelling on the Gardiner eastbound during the peak morning hour—7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.—and westbound in the afternoon—4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.—as well as eastbound and westbound travel times during the middle of the day—11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. It found that the first three weeks of the new construction that started in mid-April this year caused travel times to increase, 'resulting in an average morning peak travel time of 40 minutes from the pre-construction 23-minute commute.' Delays were found to be at their worst along the segment of the Gardiner that spans from Colborne Lodge Drive to just past Jameson Avenue. Gardiner study The map above shows increased eastbound travel times on the Gardiner Expressway towards downtown Toronto during the 7:30-8:30 a.m. rush hour, comparing pre-construction with conditions after new construction began in 2025. 'The data clearly shows the significant strain of the Gardiner Expressway construction on daily commutes and business in the Greater Toronto Area,' said Mike Branch, Vice President of Data and Analytics at Geotab, in a release on Monday. 'The traffic patterns in large cities like Toronto impact the entire region. When you add a large sporting event, concert, or other community event, you have a picture of where the bottlenecks will be. With the roadwork expected to continue next year, drivers should plan for significant delays along their commutes.' The study said that when construction first began, those first three weeks also had the slowest travel times, but the numbers came down after drivers settled into the new routine, so if that pattern holds, commute times could lower by about five minutes in the coming weeks. And it's not just the Gardiner being impacted by the 24/7 construction. Altitude by Geotab says Lake Shore Boulevard has seen a 'persistent' 30 per cent average increase in travel time over the last 14 months. According to the province, construction is slated to be complete by January 2026. With files from CTV News Toronto's Alex Arsenych
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
Woman injured after falling out of or jumping from vehicle on Gardiner
A woman was rushed to a hospital after she fell out of or jumped from a vehicle on the Gardiner Expressway early Sunday. Toronto Police reported the woman suffered 'serious injuries' after the 2 a.m. incident in the westbound lanes of the Gardiner, at Dufferin St. She is now listed in stable condition. Police confirmed that officers were able to locate the driver of the vehicle. The westbound lanes of the Gardiner, at Spadina Ave., were closed but have since reopened.
